People & Events Andrei Sakharov, (1921 - 1989) Andrei Sakharov is often called the father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, but most people know him as one of the twentieth century's most ardent and unrelenting champions of human rights and freedoms. It was for his work as an outspoken dissident to the Soviet regime that the Nobel Committee awarded him the Peace Prize in 1975. The citation called him ...